Friday, 11 May 2018

Meanwhile, with no stable government in sight, the problems the country [Italy] faces are serious. For example, leading Mafia expert Roberto Saviano in a new book estimates that around 80% of the “migration business” in the Mediterranean is in the hands of the Italian Mafia. Worth at least 60 billion euros a year, this is arguably a more lucrative and ‘ethical’ trade than drugs or arms trafficking and it is employing a growing number of the southern Italian youth who are becoming existentially dependent on the continuous stream of illegal migrants.And given the absence of state power, ‘shadow powers’ as they are called in Italy can expand their outreach. Italian army general Vincenzo Santo has observed that he believes the flow of migrants in the Mediterranean is being controlled from Italy’s coastlines.

Meanwhile the German Cabinet has approved a new refugee family reunification law. From August 1, the new migrant family reunification law will allow "subsidiary" refugees ("subsidiary" means they do not have full asylum and are not allowed in theory to stay indefinitely) to bring their relatives into Germany.Deutsche Welle reports that

Under exceptional circumstances, even allow migrants in Germany flagged as potential Islamists to apply for family reunification, provided they can prove to authorities that neither they nor their relatives will pose a threat.